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1.5.13-Theonlycheeseleft
Brick!Club 1.5.13: Blah Blah Municipal Police Whooboy that chapter title is a mouthful. So it’s time for our first great Valjean vs. Javert showdown, but first, we must listen to Fantine’s extremely heartbreaking attempt to explain herself. What I think is the saddest thing here is how Fantine keeps second-guessing herself and making these small excuses - “I said to myself, ‘The gentleman is amusing himself’” and “Perhaps I did wrong to get angry” and the ever problematic Hugofail, “it was only necessary to glance into my closets, and it would have been evident that I was not a coquettish and untidy woman.” *facepalm* She’s been disgraced and disrespected and utterly tortured, and she’s still making excuses for herself. As a way to soften Javert up, perhaps, but at this point, I think it’s clear Fantine actually believes she deserves some of this. With all the harm that’s come to her, and with how quickly she was initially tossed aside by Tholomyes, she’s almost certainly feeling she’s earned some of this, and I think that’s the saddest thing of all here. She’s lost her teeth and her hair and her pride and her child, and now she’s willingly handing Javert the last bit of self-confidence she has. This is her last offering, her last effort. This is all she has left to give. I really like the paragraph in which Javert has his moment of WTF IS EVEN HAPPENING when Fantine spits in Madeleine’s face and he tells Javert to set her free. Because that….doesn’t always come across in adaptations. Musical!Javert gets huffy, and extra-suspicious, but here, we’re already seeing echoes of what is to become Javert’s eventual downfall - he sees the world in very strict parameters, ones that he’s constructed to bring personal order into a world of chaos, and already, they’re starting to crumble around him. He still sees Madeleine as mayor, as someone who deserves - rather, demands - respect, and yet, his suspicions for Madeleine bring him into conflict. He’s already struggling to reconcile the man with the title, as he will ultimately struggle to reconcile Valjean the man with Valjean the criminal. Javert and Madeline’s argument is probably my favorite part of the chapter, though, because Madeline is just shutting him down and sassing him to hell and back and you can see Javert struggling, trying to respect this man of the law, trying to respect this representation of the law, and then Madeline straight up pulls a Law and Order and cites regulation at Javert and then tells him to leave. And then this: Javet received the blow erect, full in the face, in his breast, like a Russian soldier. He bowed to the very earth before the mayor and left the room. Oh, Javert. Your entire world has been rocked and you just take it. With all thy faults, I love thee. (No, really, though. Every cop show ever owes Victor Hugo a great big thank you for introducing the “According to article sixteen paragraph five in the blah blah blah, YOU ARE WRONG” method of winning a trial or finding a loophole. Valjean did it first.) Commentary Pilferingapples …”Blah Blah Municipal Police”? XD I think Fantine’s acceptance of her own degradation is a big part of why it happens; after all, if she’d gone to see Madeleine right off, NONE OF THIS needed to occur. But she got into a huge ourobouros loop of shame making her treat herself worse so she felt more shame and AUGH FANTINE your life is horrible and the worst part is that you thought you had it coming. I wonder if Hugo really WAS the first with the NO YOU’RE OUT OF ORDER bit, though..? It’s such a standard now, but it had to have some starting point…anyone with a better grasp of world lit who can weigh in on this?